THERE is a considerable increase in the number of the passengers travelling from Doha to Istanbul in Turkey due Eid al-Adha, an airline official has said.
Yousuf Ilker Karsaslan, marketing manager of Turkish Airlines at Darwish Travel Bureau, attributed the rise in traffic to the fact that the Eid holidays are followed by the New Year (Christmas) break.
“Both expatriates and Qataris are using this vacation opportunity to travel,” he says.
As a result, “our flights were booked a month in advance. Our team in Doha, led by country manager Ersen Engin, decided to upgrade the aircraft type during the Eid–New Year period, Karsaslan said.
“Our daily flights usually operate from Doha with Boeing 737-800 that has 155 passengers capacity.
“We upgraded most of the services by Airbus 321 that has 199 passengers capacity to meet the increased demand.
“But we are still facing difficulty to provide seats for some of the passengers as demand still continues to increase.”
The flights from Doha are fully booked until December 8 and “seems the situation will be the same for the New Year period”.
Meanwhile, to attract passengers to travel into Doha, Turkish Airlines has introduced a promotional fare of Euro111 for a round trip, the official said.
The official said, the Doha station was not affected by the recent incidents in India and Thailand as “our traffic is mainly to European, Central Asian and North African destinations”.
Besides, he said, the airline started flying to Baghdad on October 26.
“Currently, we operate to Baghdad five times a week that soon will be daily. Also, the airline will start flying to Birmingham five times a week as its third destination in UK effective December 15.”
